Chemotherapy causes changes in the brain's metabolism and blood flow that can last as long as 10 years, a discovery that may explain the mental fog and confusion that affect many cancer survivors, researchers said Thursday.
The researchers, from UCLA, found that women who had undergone chemotherapy five to 10 years earlier had lower metabolism in a key region of the frontal cortex.
Women treated with chemotherapy also showed a spike in blood flow to the frontal cortex and cerebellum while performing memory tests, indicating a rapid jump in activity level, the researchers said in a statement about their study.
"The same area of the frontal lobe that showed lower resting metabolism displayed a substantial leap in activity when the patients were performing the memory exercise," said Daniel Silverman, the UCLA associate professor who led the study.
"In effect, these women's brains were working harder than the control subjects' to recall the same information," he said in a statement.
Experts estimate that at least 25 percent of chemotherapy patients are affected by symptoms of confusion, so-called chemo brain, and a recent study by the University of Minnesota reported an 82 percent rate, the statement said.
"People with 'chemo brain' often can't focus, remember things or multitask the way they did before chemotherapy," Silverman said.
"Our study demonstrates for the first time that patients suffering from these cognitive symptoms have specific alterations in brain metabolism."
The study was published Thursday in the online edition of Breast Cancer Research and Treatment.
The researchers tested 21 women who had surgery to remove breast tumors.
Of those, 16 of had received chemotherapy and five had not.
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